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Human Rights Watch said in a report issued on Wednesday Feb, 6th, 2008 he Syrian government has arbitrarily arrested 12 activists who attended an opposition group meeting in December. In a statement, the international rights group called for authorities in Syria to dismiss all charges against the activists and to investigate "credible allegations that State Security officials beat at least eight of the activists during interrogation."The 12 activists, including former member of Parliament Riad Seif, were detained as part of the ongoing crackdown on individuals who attended the December 1 meeting of the National Council of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change (NCDD), an umbrella group for opposition pro-democracy organizations. On January 28, Mohamed Subhi Al Sa"ur, the investigating judge on the case, referred 11 of the detained activists to prosecutors on charges of "weakening national sentiment, spreading false or exaggerated news which would affect the morale of the country, membership in an organization formed with the purpose of changing the structure of the state, inciting sectarian strife," and "joining a secret association."
"The Syrian authorities are treating these activists like criminals simply because they called for democratic and peaceful change," Joe Stork, acting Middle East director at HRW, said in the statement.
 
Eight of the 11 told the investigative judge that State Security officials beat them during their interrogation and forced them to sign confessions that they planned to take money from foreign countries in order to divide the country by giving the Kurds a separate state.The detainees" lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the activists told the investigative judge in their judicial questioning how they were punched in the face, kicked, and slapped by State Security officials.
 
The authorities are currently holding 10 of the detainees, including Riad Seif, in "Adra prison with common criminals. Fida" al-Hurani, the only woman in the group and the recently elected president of the NCDD, is in the women"s jail in Duma, near Damascus. The 12th and latest activist to be detained, Talal Abu Dan, an artist and sculptor from Aleppo, has remained in the custody of State Security since he was called in for interrogation on January 30. Since the activists" referral to jails in "Adra and Duma, their relatives have been able to visit the activists. Conditions of detention are harsh: prison authorities do not provide mattresses, and many of the activists are still wearing the same clothes since their arrest in December. According to relatives, they are allowed to pass money to the activists but no clothes. Lawyers that have seen the detainees told Human Rights Watch that some looked "weak and tired."Syrian prison authorities are mistreating these activists," said Stork. "These people should not be in prison in the first place."
 
It is worth mentioning that the government crackdown began on December 9 when State Security, one of Syria"s multiple security agencies, began arresting some of the 163 activists that attended the National Council of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change (NCDD). A total of 40 NCDD members have been arrested and 12 remain in detention. The 12 who remain in detention are:
1. Walid al-Bunni, 44, physician
2. Yasser al-"Eiti, 40, physician and poet
3. Feda" al-Hurani, 51, physician
4. Akram al-Bunni, 51, writer
5. Ahmad To"meh, 51, dentist
6. Jabr al-Shufi, 60, Arabic-literature teacher
7. "Ali al-"Abdullah, 58, writer
8. Fayez Sarah, 58, writer and journalist
9. Muhammad Hajj Darwish, 48, businessman
10. Marwan al-"Ush, 52, engineer
11. Riad Seif, 61,former member of parliament
12. Talal Abu Dan, 55, artist and sculptor